Thai cuisine · Hot, sour, salty, sweet: nam prik, fish sauce and the regional map from Bangkok street to Isan grilled chicken.
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Thai cuisine (ไทย) fused Tai, Chinese, Mon and Indian techniques with New World chili. Nam pla and nam prik are older than the tourist pad Thai of the 20th century.
Thai cuisine sits at spice 92 in this atlas. Pad Thai and Tom yum show the range better than a single heat number.
Pad Thai plus one regional plate — not only the export icon.
Thai fish sauce.
Bangkok street food — boat noodles, boat noodles, boat noodles, som tum carts, late-night rice porridge — is not a sideshow. Pad Thai is a 20th-century national-noodle project, not an ancient royal plate.
The home pantry around Nam pla and the labour behind Tom yum rarely fit a takeaway box.
The dishes that carry Thai cuisine are the ones a market cook and a home kitchen would both recognise.
Eight signatures below explain the table to a first-time diner and to a grocer stocking the aisle.
Takeaway · CC BY-SA 3.0
Tamarind-fish-sauce rice noodles, a nation-building street plate.
Pad Thai is a reference plate of Thai cuisine, cooked in Bangkok and copied abroad.
“The lesson of Pad Thai is the pantry: nam pla / pla ra and jasmine rice / sticky rice.”
Takeaway · CC BY-SA 3.0
Hot-and-sour soup with lemongrass, lime leaf and chili.
Tom yum is a reference plate of Thai cuisine, cooked in Bangkok and copied abroad.
“The lesson of Tom yum is the pantry: nam pla / pla ra and jasmine rice / sticky rice.”
Terence Ong · CC BY 2.5
Coconut curry from green chili paste, Thai basil and meat or fish balls.
Green curry is a reference plate of Thai cuisine, cooked in Bangkok and copied abroad.
“The lesson of Green curry is the pantry: nam pla / pla ra and jasmine rice / sticky rice.”
Takeaway · CC BY-SA 3.0
Pounded papaya, chili, lime, fish sauce, often pla ra or dried shrimp.
Som tum is a reference plate of Thai cuisine, cooked in Bangkok and copied abroad.
“The lesson of Som tum is the pantry: nam pla / pla ra and jasmine rice / sticky rice.”
Dennis Wong from Hong Kong, Hong Kong · CC BY 2.0
Coconut sticky rice with ripe mango — a dessert that became an export icon.
Mango sticky rice is a reference plate of Thai cuisine, cooked in Bangkok and copied abroad.
“The lesson of Mango sticky rice is the pantry: nam pla / pla ra and jasmine rice / sticky rice.”
Iudexvivorum · CC0
Holy-basil minced-meat wok with a fried egg — the actual home lunch.
Pad krapow is a reference plate of Thai cuisine, cooked in Bangkok and copied abroad.
“The lesson of Pad krapow is the pantry: nam pla / pla ra and jasmine rice / sticky rice.”
Takeaway · CC BY-SA 3.0
A Muslim-Thai coconut curry with warm spice and potato.
Massaman curry is a reference plate of Thai cuisine, cooked in Bangkok and copied abroad.
“The lesson of Massaman curry is the pantry: nam pla / pla ra and jasmine rice / sticky rice.”
Gunawan Kartapranata · CC BY-SA 4.0
Grilled skewers with peanut sauce, a shared Malay-Thai street form.
Satay is a reference plate of Thai cuisine, cooked in Bangkok and copied abroad.
“The lesson of Satay is the pantry: nam pla / pla ra and jasmine rice / sticky rice.”
Stats are relative 0–100 marks within this cuisine, for comparison only.
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Does Pad Thai abroad still count as Thai cuisine when the pantry is rewritten?
Capitals claim Tom yum; provinces disagree, loudly.
Fermented heat and shared grills: kimchi, gochujang and banchan from the Korean Peninsula.
Overall 76 🍣Dashi, rice and seasonal restraint: washoku from sushi counters to home miso soup.
Overall 72 🥟Eight great traditions, one wok logic: soy, rice, wheat and the regional map behind "Chinese food".
Overall 80 🍲Herbs, nuoc mam and a French-colonial overlay: pho, banh mi and the regional split from Hanoi to the Mekong.
Overall 68